Foreign object ingestion and food bolus impactions are a common occurrence. Urgent intervention is required to prevent aspiration and perforation. Foreign object ingestion or food bolus impaction creates an obstruction. Obstruction is anything that is obstructs, blocks, or closes off a bodily cavity. Food bolus impactions occur in the upper gastrointestinal tract (GI tract), with the most common site of impaction at the stomach-esophagus (gastro-esophageal) junction, or at other regions of narrowing within the esophagus. The upper GI tract consists of the mouth, pharynx, esophagus, stomach and duodenum terminating at the ligament of Treitz.
Typically, an initial endoscopic examination verifies, locates and identifies the obstruction. An endoscope is shaped as a long tube, which is inserted through the mouth into the esophagus and stomach to identify the foreign object or food bolus. Once the foreign object or food bolus has been identified with the endoscope, various instruments can be passed through the endoscope to grasp and remove or displace the obstruction. An endoscopist is a person trained to use an endoscope.
The foreign object or food bolus can usually be removed en bloc or in a piecemeal fashion with the instruments. Instruments include forceps, which come in varying shapes, sizes and grips, snares, and oval loops that can be retracted from outside the endoscope to lasso objects, as well as baskets, or mesh nets that can be closed to trap small objects, and magnets placed at the end of the scope. Some techniques have been described that use catheters to trap objects, or use two snares to orient foreign bodies.
These current instruments are not ideal in that they each are limited to specific uses. Furthermore, a “pull” and “push” technique is required. This technique requires the instrument to be manipulated by pulling it back and then pushing it gently to displace the obstruction into the stomach. This is not desirable for objects that cannot be digested or that cannot be safely excreted. Nor is this technique desirable to perform on obstructions that are firmly impacted with the upper GI tract including the walls of the esophagus.
As an alternative to the endoscopic clearance described, a food bolus impaction can be cleared passively through the use of medication, such as Glucagon. This approach is often not successful.
The currently available instruments for foreign object ingestion and food impaction clearance are not ideal. Likewise, medication does not offer consistent success to passively clearing a food impaction. Thus, there is a strong need for improvement in the clearance of obstructions in the upper gastrointestinal tract.